Intel Core i5-661 Review - PAGE 10

Let's face it, even though the Core i5-661 is a very capable processor, it was designed with media in mind. Home theater personal computers, or HTPC for short, are slowly making their way toward mainstream adoption and today's launch is another step forward in that direction. Intel has partnered up with companies to make sure hardware acceleration worked with Clarkdale's IGP and the result is flawless high-definition playback.

Armed with a Blu-ray drive, a Pioneer VSX-1018AH-K receiver, a 1080p television and, of course, a HDMI cable, I fired up The Dark Knight using ArcSoft Total Media Theater 3. Minutes later, I had a crisp movie playing with 8 channel LPCM audio.

Everything just worked painlessly. There were no visible artifacts or any sort of stuttering and with hardware accelleration, processor usage was minimal.

Youtube

The most popular, free media streaming website now hosts 720p as well as 1080p content, which happens to be quite processor intensive. During testing, the Core i5-661 hovered around 10% processor usage, providing smooth playback with plenty of room to multitask in the background.